Oct 15, 2010

¨For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life-and-death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity. I hope therefore … to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love. ¨

Thank you so much for this link and the opportunity to hear this mans story...while watching it I thought how much Leo Jack Iker and his pals at the schismatic Anglican Church of Ft. Worth need to listen and stop talking about LGBT Christians, a subject they know very little about...listening is key.

Yes, people with lgbt friends are less likely to be bigots. It is easy to fear and demonize the unknown. Lgbt people need to tell their personal stories so potential bigots can see them as fellow human beings and not just "the other." Of course, certain kinds of homophobes (mainly the closeted kind) will not be moved, because what they fear is within them.

And then there's the need, especially in groups, to project outward and find scapegoats. I think that's when we get into the realm of evil.

On your mom and dad loving you -- I cannot imagine anything more important for a child than the genuine, healthy love of his/her parents, Leonardo. It's the foundation of healthy self-esteem and feeling at home in the world -- a real blessing, and I'm glad you had it. Wish every child could have it.

What seems interesting to me is that the self-loathing that I accumulated seemed to come from my peers saying things that were ugly about people (like I thought I was...I was right)...odd, in all of this I pressed on, seemed to hold my ground and sometimes even excelled...but, I did have shame and I was afraid of being disliked because I could feel the discomfort and embarrassment of being effeminate (which was coupled with lots of male physical activity too)...but, I, and I imagine, most other Gay children had lots of imagination and dreaming/fantasy outside of the box.

Sunday, 20th March, 2011 OFFICIALS and workers of the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity were on Monday morning stunned when they were bl...

REAL HERO/REAL LIFE: Bishop John Shelby Spong

“I was simply interpreting a rising consciousness,” he said. “Whether it was race or women or homosexual people, the issue was always the same: fighting against anything that dehumanizes a child of God on the basis of an external characteristic.” Bishop John Shelby Spong (click on his photo)

¨Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?¨ Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu